Virus gonna virus

Gonna virus gonna virus gonna virus gonna…

We are almost two years into the plague di tutti plagues, the virus with a 3 in 1,000 death rate (give or take), which rounds down to roughly 0 in 1,000 for the non-elderly and morbidly obese.

Along the way, lots of different states and countries have pursued lots of different strategies, from Zero Covid to Zero Restrictions, from early vaccines to late vaccines to (basically) no vaccines.

Two years should be long enough to know who wore it best, amirite? So let’s go to the videotape!

Here’s the United Kingdom (heavy early lockdown, 70% vaccinated, tons of testing, just like the public health people want)

Erm. Not so good.

And here’s India (hard early lockdown, 20% fully vaccinated, very few with mRNA vaccines)

Okay, they had that big spikeroo in the spring, but they don’t look bad. But also they’re relatively young.

Now here’s Colombia (VERY hard early lockdown, 39% fully vaccinated)

Three, count them three, different waves, but nothing the last six months. Hmm. Maybe 39% vaccinated is the magic number?

Or maybe not. Because here’s Russia (light lockdowns, 33% vaccinated):

Mother Russia! Clearly some hard lockdowns are in order. And speaking of lockdowns, maybe Australia (SUPER hard lockdowns, explicit Zero Covid strategy, late but aggressive vaccinations) has the answer?

Looking good for a while, Australia… but not so much now.

It’s almost - hear me out, this is gonna sound CRAZEE - government strategies have made NO DIFFERENCE to the spread of this highly contagious but only moderately dangerous respiratory disease.

There is one exception, though.

I give you the People’s Republic of China, without which we wouldn’t be talking about the ro at all. Somehow Xi and Shi, the dear leader and the bat lady, have managed to make Covid go bye-bye - without a single jab of our fancy Western vaccines.

Virus gonna virus. And China gonna China.

It’s a miracle, I tell ya. A miracle!